Category Archives: Midwest Reviews

The front of the box. “Clean and Sanitize Carboys, Corny Kegs, Brew Pails and Hoses” and “1 Year Guarantee”

Side of the box. It says: •Clean and Sanitize Carboys. No need for a bottle brush. Clean every square inch of the inside of a carboy in minutes. •Clean and sanitize Corny Kegs. No need to disassemble the keg. Clean the inside of the keg and the dip tube. •Clean and Sanitize Brew Pails and Hoses. •Spend your time brewing beer, not cleaning your equipment.

Other side of the box. It recaps features and then let’s you know what’s in the box: 1.25 gallon high density polyethylene basin, center holding rack with powerful jet nozzle, 520 gallon-per-hour pump with three adapters, instruction manual and warranty.

The Keg and Carboy Washer unboxed.

A look at the individual components.

1.25 gallon basin.

A look at the four included nozzles/adapters. From left to right: 1. T for use with cleaning Corny kegs. The barb goes to tubing that feeds you keg’s dip tube, 2. Barb for cleaning 3/8″ ID tubing, 3. Jet nozzle for both carboys and kegs. For carboys it goes directly on the vertical pipe, for kegs the T goes on first followed by the jet nozzle, 4. Barb for cleaning 1/4″ ID tubing.

Top of the Pump

This is the back side of the pump. It has an adjustable louvre for regulating intake. You’re probably going to want to just always have this wide open. If you’re having flow issues, double check this to make sure it’s open.

Fully assembled and rigged to clean a carboy. The bottom part of the basin holds about 1 gallon of water, cleaning solution or sanitizer.

Fully assembled and rigged up to clean a ball lock keg. You provide the Ball Lock or Pin Lock QD along with tubing.

The Keg and Carboy Cleaner, cleaning a… Carboy

It also works with buckets

and of course… kegs

and can clean and sanitize tubing

and… it works with Speidel Fermenters. This is the 5.3 Gallon Size – Review. The 7.9 Gallon Size has the same size opening and also works. I will say that with a bucket, carboy or keg I feel pretty comfortable walking away for a bit while it’s working. Not so with the 5.3 and 7.9 Gallon Speidels. The opening is about the same size as the top of the carboy washer. That means it sits on top instead of inside (like a carboy) or outside (like a bucket). If you use this for your 5.3 and 7.9 gallon Speidels, you’re going to want to keep your hand on it to keep the fermenter in place. I’m guessing, but do not know first hand, that larger Speidels, with their larger openings, work well with the Keg and Carboy Washer without such support, much like a bucket.

Update: and… some kettles and keggles! Thanks to Twitter Follower Christian for this tip and photo!

One of the great things about this washer is that you do not need to disassemble your kegs to clean and sanitize them. I ran through 5 kegs the first night I used it. All were clean and sanitized when all was said and done. Of course, you do have to take the lid off. That, along with other small parts, can be tossed in the basin for cleaning and sanitizing.

This video shows the kind of flow rate you’re getting to the keg QD. Looks good to me.

For keg cleaning, the instructions say to run with the QD connected for about 15 minutes and then disconnect the QD. “This will maximize the pressure for cleaning the keg’s interior”.

One issue that I had with it when I first started using the washer for kegs was… the QD was a bit difficult to get on. There isn’t a lot of spare tubing (and you don’t want a lot for pressure purposes) and requirement to exert pressure up on the QD while trying to hold the keg down is an awkward set of motions. There isn’t a lot of leverage. This problem ended up being a poppet issue. I use universal poppets on nearly every keg. Those work great, but can be on the tight side with some kegs. I know that can be an issue. The fix for that is and has been… simply trim a bit of the spring with a wire cutter. I just hadn’t noticed it as a problem when trying to use the kegs in question in the typical orientation. Using a wire cutter to trim a bit off the poppet spring fixed the issue making it a lot easier to hook up to the carboy washer.

I’ve owned this keg and carboy washer for quite a while now. I had been using a DIY cleaning pump setup and that worked pretty well. The purpose built Mark’s Keg and Carboy Washer works markedly (did you see what I did there :), better. It uses less cleaning and sanitizing solution, it’s more versatile, takes up less space and… I don’t have to take apart my kegs to clean and sanitize them.

I’ve heard great things about this unit for some time now. I’m happy to confirm that it works really well.

I purchased my unit at More Beer. As of this writing, it’s selling for $99.99 Shipped – Here

Width at the top of the fermenter is roughly 5 3/4″. I’m hooking on the outside of the lip on the other side, so I would call the actual opening roughly 5 1/2″. Plenty large enough to get my arm through.

They are kind of difficult to see in this picture, but the fermenter has hash marks built into it denoting 1 gallon increments. I found the first one to be right on. The remainder seemed just a little high to me. I’d shoot for just under each hash mark after the first one.

The stated capacity of the 6.5 gallon fermenter is… 6.5 gallons. By my measurements it’s actually 7 gallons. There is approximately 3/4″ of an inch left over with 7 gallons of water in the fermenter.

Here is the full fermenter with my generally handy 1 Gallon Rubbermaid Commercial Pitcher. I use that for a bunch of things including on Brew Days.

One of my tests on the fermenter was to carry it chock full of 7 gallons of water to my utility sink to empty it. That’s about 58 lbs. It held up fine and did not collapse or otherwise deform when I rested it on the side of the sink to empty it.

Bottom of the fermenter.

The lid is in two parts, an outer threaded ring and an interchangeable inside portion. I have the single ported version, but a double ported version is also available. The second port can be used for racking and easy sample taking. When not in use a solid universal stopper is used to seal the second port.

Stopper and airlock installed. The stopper seats firmly in the port.

A custom designed carrier is also available for this carboy. It has adjustable handles and horizontal straps.

One of the coolest parts of this large mouth fermenter is the… large mouth. That allows you to easily get in the carboy to clean it, add and remove ingredients and harvest yeast. The way my calipers work means the display is upside down for this photo. I get an inside measurement of 5.198 inches. Wide enough to easily fit my arguably gi-hugic arm inside the carboy.

A custom carrier is available for the big mouth bubbler. Here’s a picture of that installed on the carboy. Both the handles and the horizontal straps are adjustable. All related accessories can be found on the product page for the fermenter (Northern Brewer – Midwest Supplies).

The strap is made in the USA. It’s a quality construction and feels solid when installed. The straps tighten down to lock the carboy in the carrying harness.

Locking adjustment for the handles.

Here’s a photo of the horizontal strap and mechanism.

A side view of the carrying handle straps.

The Big Mouth Bubbler includes a nice microfiber glass for drying.

Seals are available in 5 packs. You get two lid seals and three cap seals in each pack. These five packs are a mere… 99 cents.

The carboy and strap fit nicely in the included shipping box. I’ll hang on to that for storage.

I’m very impressed with this fermenter. I’m planning to brew Northern Brewer’s Cascade Mountains Double IPA this weekend and give it a go for a fermentation.

I recently brewed Midwest’s West Side Belgian IPA kit. Midwest has partnered with Minneapolis based Harriet Brewing to put this kit together.Description from Midwest Supplies:West Side Belgian-Style IPAHarriet’s West Side is an eclectic ale brewed to balance the brightest West Coast hops with a prolific Belgian yeast strain. It pours light copper with a vigorous white head. Subtle malt gives way to a fruity, citrusy, and slightly spicy aroma and flavor. Light bodied, effervescent, and seductively approachable.

At Harriet Brewing we emphasize intention as the primary component in recipe development. It’s what makes good beer special. We take pride in using our knowledge of traditional beer styles, our open minds, and eclectic palates to brew both unique and traditional beer styles. Our goal with every recipe is authenticity… to develop a particular character that allows the beer to stand out and be remembered. It’s authenticity that we crave as beer drinkers; so, it’s authenticity that we strive for as brewers. We study beer, determine what we want, then manifest it! For most of us here, it’s not just in brewing; it’s a way of life.

Specialty grains going in

Just prior to adding the malt extract. It had been a while since I had brewed an extract beer. I had forgotten just how much color comes from steeped specialty grains.

Scary hot break. Need to stir instead of taking pictures!

Ready to cool

Tasty beer in a glass

I chose the Wyeast yeast option which is Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522. That yeast works well in the 65 to 72 deg F temperature range. I fermented in the middle of that range at 68. I wanted to get some of Belgian spice and esters without going overboard.

This is a tasty beer. It has some of those Belgian yeast components along with a nice hop bitterness and west coast hop flavor. I like the combination of those two types of flavors when the Belgian yeast component is not over the top. Overall, I’m a fan of this beer and would certainly brew it again.

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